St. Peter's loses fifth straight 67-51

Jersey Journal file photoDarius Conley, left, seen during a game against Wagner, was the only St. Peter's College player to distinguish himself on the court during Saturday's game against the University of Harford, JC Hoops writes.

The St. Peter's College Peacocks (5-23) lost 67-51 to the University of Hartford Hawks (8-19) before a few hundred fans on Saturday afternoon in Jersey City. The Hawks are a member of the America East Conference. The victory was their fourth straight, their longest winning streak in four years.

St. Peter's is the third MAAC team the Hawks have played this season. Hartford has lost to Niagara by three points and lost to Marist by three points in double overtime earlier this season. Hartford is 7-7 in their conference and in fifth place in the nine team league.

In a match-up of evenly matched teams, it was Hartford that proved to be the better team on Saturday as they led for most of the game, often by double digits. While the Hawks are not a very big team, they were bigger than SPC and dominated the boards 34-17. They also shot the ball extremely well as they made 62 percent of their attempts from the floor and 9-11 from the free throw line.

On the other hand, the Peacocks shot 42 percent from the floor, including two missed dunks, and a horrible 7-17 from the foul line.

Hartford was a team of good shooters as just about every member of the team appeared to have three-point range. They were clearly superior shooters while St. Peter's continued to struggle from the perimeter. No one on SPC with the exception of Darius Conley distinguished themselves, and Conley did it while often being double-teamed. This was not one of the better Peacock performances as they seemed to be a step slow, flat and uninspired.

After many games, I stop in to chat with Coach John Dunne. But this loss seemed to really frustrate him and I decided to skip the post-game visit. All the losing is taking a toll on the players, coaches and fans.

Everyone expected a challenging season after graduating four seniors and dismissing the best returning player, but the new additions to the program were expected to make a significant contribution, and they have not.

St. Peter's returns to action Friday at 8 p.m. against Niagara in the last home game of the season.